I'd like to share with you all the response that came in for Ordnance certificate I worked on. I told you that sometimes I go the source and in this case I received a lovely reply:

Classification: UNCLASSIFIEDCaveats: NONE

Dear Candice Roy,

As far as we can tell, this type of certificate went into the personnel file for individual soldiers but copies were not retained in the organizational records of the issuing agency (in this case the U.S. Army Ordnance School). Because of this the personnel records are the only source for this type of document. You would need to know the name of other soldiers that received this type of certificate and then consult their personnel files. To complicate matters, the US Army personnel records for veterans are sent to the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri, but there was a tragic fire at NPRC in 1973 that destroyed the majority of personnel files for veterans that had served from 1917-1973. Because of this, it may be very difficult to find another of these certificates.

If you are able to identify other soldiers that may have been given this same certificate, you can contact the NPRC to ask if the personnel records for that soldier still survive. Contact information and instruction for requesting records can be found on this website: